We'll have a trade request story just in time to mask the stupidity of Jerry Angelo's drafting.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

My prediction is this will turn out to be similar to when Lou wanted to move Dempster to being a starter. The idea gets floated, then something happens (Hendry, Ricketts or Lou change their mind) and they don't do it.

I still want to hear someone come up with something that will solve the 7th/8th inning problems the Cubs have. Assuming Marshall is going to continue to get people out they still need a right handed guy. What do you people think they should do? Longer term, my guy is Silva...who also happens to be getting paid almost $13 million/year. I don't know if he can keep doing what he has done so far this year.

Right church, wrong pew.

John McDonough called in a favor to get the 'hawks off the front page.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Silva will probably come back down to earth and they will swap spots sooner than later. His approach sucks this year. He can not throw that many pitches. If he can not get that through his head then maybe this will help him understand. If you look at the stats from this year he has been the worst starting pitcher, labors through innings and has required more use of the pen than any other pitcher. Do I want him there forever--hell no. This is temporary and addresses a weakness while allowing him to address his weakness. He can not continue to take the "well ive got too strikes on you and now I am going to dick around the corners to strike you out and end up in a 3-2 count" approach.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Honestly that was my initial quick take on it; but the possible intentions and/or timeline doesn't remove the fact that it's just a blazingly foolish idea.

At it's best, it's a situation where one might say to another, "I can see how you arrived at this decision, but it and you are still both really, really stupid". Just because one can see how a thought progressed to its ultimate fruition doesn't eliminate said thought from being bad.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

I'm going to guess this is the quickest move ever from Opening Day starter to bullpen set up man in MLB history.

Also, how does this affect my fantasy team

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Team Cutler.

While his SP should remain unchanged, in most cases, after Z makes 5 relief appearances he'll receive RP status. Either way, he's likely eligible for a plain P slot.

</SHARK>

(yes, I drafted him as well ... in the 14th round, preceded by Nate McClouth)

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

We're nah gonnn sturr pancake. Isssserrly. Whuhhya wahhhhmeda doooo.

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I know that owners should act like owners and just sign the checks, but this is one instance that Tom Ricketts needs to save his new toy from the Three Stooges (Hendry, Pinella, and Rothschild) step in and veto this decision. And if they balk at his veto, walk then.

This is insane. His last start only allowed 2 over 6 or 7?
This is a desperate move by a desperate team. They know they can't do shit to make this team win 80 games this year. So they're desperate.
Other thing, Z is kinda a loose fun dude in the dugout when he's not playing that day always goofin and shit. He's gonna hate sitting in the pen.
This has management fail written all over it, from owner to Lou, fail.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

About the best we can get from the horses mouth. Lou was on Cubs Pre-game on 720 and indicated the following:
He spoke with Ricketts, Busch, Hendry and Rothschild and all agreed this was the best thing to do at this time.
Carlos was my first choice.
Gorz and Lilly not needed in pen because they already have 3 lefties w/ Marshall performing well.
Silva is pitching really well, why break up his rythm. Plus concern about his shoulder if he has to pitch on back to back days.
Wells has pitched well enough to stay in rotation. Dempster we just moved from the pen a couple of years ago and is pitching well.
We cannot continue to put young pitchers in stressful situations where they are failing. That is not good for development.

Look, we are doing what we feel is best for the team right now. Carlos was willing to do it and that is commendable.

This guy's behind this move:

If I was little TOMMY THEY WOULD ALL BE FUCKIN GONE. What type a business does he run a paper stand at Union station, because this makes NO business sense at all

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

silva, dempster, and wells have been innings eaters. and they don't have a power pitch like carlos the dwarf does. i don't think it should be permanent either because for one...i think his bat is pretty important based on his ability to hit HR's.

i know that z looked better recently but he is too erratic and you never feel safe with him as a starter. if he blows in the bullpen, then move him back. i don't think it's going to completely fuck the team...they're already completely fucked anyway.

I have not been near the Radio or the net today. Is this really true?

Yes Zack, they were fucked before the season started. Anyone with any baseball sense could see it. This is a poorly constructed team.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

Ace 56 looked really good tonight.


WZ and Reason understand. Its like throwing a match into a raging fire. Little or no effect on the inevitable burn.

Yes it's really true. I'm starting to wonder if there isn't another reason behind this move. Dummy's starts and innings have gone down the last two years and he hasn't looked very good this seaon. Could he possibly be a little ouchy?

Don't think he is ouchy.You don't put ouchy guys in the pen when they can be called on day in day out as opposed to starting.

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You never miss your wealth, till your well went dry
Seem like only yesterday, you were here smiling
Now you gone away, but I know you in a better place
No traces of you, what can I do?
Alone and confused

This guy was moved to the pen and I'm pretty sure he could be labled as 'ouchy'.

i dont think this is a bad move at all. im surprised by it, but frankly, i think it makes some sense based on the condition of the bullpen. for a long time i really thought zambrano had a chance to be a dominant starter, but lets face it, he is no more than a 2nd tier starter for a variety of reasons. it isnt like they are taking a 20 game winner, an elite ace pitcher who is racking up cy young awards, and throwing him into the pen. he is a good SP that never developed into a great SP. i used to look forward to his starts thinking that they had a great chance to win his games that he was on the hill. i havent felt like that since 08. they are making a move from a position of strength and trying to bolster the teams worst weakness. the starting pitching has been fine this year, and if i had to pick one guy out of the staff to have to make this move, i think id pick zambrano as well. this team is going NOWHERE. even if it doesnt work, big fucking deal, you pull the plug and and say "fuck it". if it does work, contrary to shouty dan bernstein, it is a big hole that is plugged that can pay bigger dividends day in and day out that watching z throw 120 pitches in 6 innings every 5th day.

this team was doomed from day 1. making a move like this at least tells me they are trying something short-term to win games, and that there is a pulse in there somewhere.

I guess that I can't really disagree with this statement. Besides, I don't view this as a long-term move. They truly are, at the moment, trying to patch up a gaping hole of suck in the middle relief role...

right now, at this minute, if i had to pick a starter from the cubs staff to start a game, zambrano would be no higher than 4th on my list (dempster, wells, and silva). i know silva is going to hit a wall eventually, but shit, the guy looks fucking awesome right now, im not touching him. dempster, lilly, wells, silva and gorzalanny looks fine for now. and i dont want gorzalanny in the pen. they already have a rag-armed pirate cast-off out there already. they needed a durable, strong right handed pitcher who could come in often and contribute.

Maybe so.



Yes, and I'm not sure that Sandberg has enough experience or testicular fortitude to fix this thing right now.



The guy sometimes pitches like an ace, most of the time acts like an ass - maybe this will get him focused, as I really believe this to be a temporary move - they're desperate for a strong, or even serviceable middle reliever

what has he done to be declared the ace of this team? he isnt the best starter on this team anymore. they need a setup guy. why not him? what makes him so untouchable?

Here's the problem, you are counting on Carlos Silva and Tom Gorzellany to continue pitching well, regardless of both of them coming off a record of several years of horrific pitching. These guys haven't been good or even average since about '07, and now management has decided to move the highest paid pitcher, who has 2 good and 2 bad starts, into the bullpen 2 weeks into the season. Now we have heard all the arguments about Zambrano, but most would concur that his greatest value lies in his durability, and his ability to hit. Now put him in a role where none of these traits are maximized, it makes zero sense unless he is being set up to fail. This is just poor management of personnel.

Yes, there is a gaping hole in the bullpen, but the setup man is usually the 5th or 6th best pitcher on the team at best. It just boggles the mind to believe that anyone would project 75 innings of Zambrano and 160 each from Gorzellanny and Silva as the best management of any major league staff. Now the team may not be going anywhere, but this is not a good move.

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

Very well stated.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

I think that guy has some things to go over with him during this short stint away from the rotation. He has tremendous talent but pitches like a damn fool most of the time. He is probably also defiant as all hell when they approach him to maybe try to get ahead in the count and pitch to contact sometimes. Almost half of his recorded outs this year are strikeouts which is not really a good thing for a guy in the rotation. Some great starters K alot of guys (3-4 pitches) but he is clearly forcing the issue (8-10 pitches). The so called ace of the staff needs to be a consistent and also capable of going 7 plus innings. Right now he is inconsistent and goes 5 or 6. There seems to be alot of overreaction to this with the thinking being he will be a set-up guy forever. This is just a temporary thing allowing them to ride Silva's hot streak while forcing Z to evaluate his approach to pitching.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

nobody is saying silva and gorzelanny are better than zambrano talent-wise. Silva is the hot hand right now, you cant touch him. They dont need another junky lefty in the pen, since grabow is already there. Wells and dempster are pitching well as starters, i wouldnt mess with them either. Z has a strong arm and good stuff, and that fits the bill right now. if the starting staff starts struggling and you need him to start, you pull the plug. this is not a plan that cannot be reversed.

I also think this will help Zambrano in the long run. Its a different approach in relief. You dont have an inning to get your feel. You have to learn how to get guys out in tough situations.

I think Dempster's time in the pen really helped him to be the starter he is today.

Bump....

So after the game tonight, Pinella says Zambrano wasn't available because they are stretching him out. Someone asks if he is going back to the rotation, and Lou says "I never said rotation, we're changing his role in the bullpen".

So now he is in long relief??

Pit him back in the rotation if the 8th inning experiment is over.

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